Amazing Grace

...and how to show it

Hello my friend! Welcome to another week. We are officially on the full sprint towards Summer. What are your plans for the upcoming season?

This week’s story is about a famous song. One that you either hear if you go to church, or if you attend any funerals for firefighters or police officers. There is a good lesson in there. I hope you enjoy it.

Now, let me tell you a little story…

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Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Amazing Grace – John Newton

March 10, 1748. Off the Coast of County Donegal, Ireland. 6:00PM.

John Newton watches in horror as one of his shipmates is swept off the slave ship Greyhound during a violent storm. Moments earlier, Newton himself had been standing in that exact spot. After lashing himself to a pump to avoid being thrown overboard, he grabs the helm and fights to steer the ship through the chaos. He will remain there for the next eleven hours.

Newton has earned a reputation as a world-class hell-raiser. He is so relentlessly profane that his captain later remarks Newton used every curse word ever invented and probably coined a few new ones during the voyage. But he hasn’t always been that way. Raised in a religious home, Newton abandons his faith as a young man and chooses life at sea. He first sails with his father, later joining the Royal Navy, eventually deserting, and winding up aboard the Greyhound, a slave ship operating in the Atlantic trade.

Now, in the middle of a storm that looks ready to drag the entire ship to the bottom of the ocean, Newton finds himself wrestling with more than the wheel. He is wrestling with his own soul.

Facing what he believes is certain death, Newton begins questioning whether he is worthy of mercy at all. He hasn’t merely neglected his faith. He’s mocked it. He ridicules believers, denounces God, and lives as though redemption belongs to everybody but him. Yet somewhere between the crashing waves and the screams of terrified sailors, something shifts. Newton later believes God broke through to him that night.

The Greyhound survives the storm, as does Newton.

The transformation doesn’t happen overnight. He remains in the slave trade for a period of time, but the storm plants a seed that eventually changes the course of his life. Newton later renounces slavery, enters the ministry, becomes an abolitionist, and writes one of the most famous hymns in human history: Amazing Grace. A song born from the belief that even the most broken people might still be redeemable.

Justice means people get what they deserve after a fair process. We might say the United States got justice when Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. Investors got justice when Bernie Madoff spent the remainder of his life in prison, dying there in 2021. Properly applied, justice is necessary. Civilization depends on it.

Mercy is different. Mercy enters the picture when punishment is deserved but withheld. It’s the desperate hope that someone with the power to crush us chooses not to. In the right circumstances, mercy is a beautiful thing.

Grace goes even further.

Grace doesn’t simply erase the punishment. Grace gives us something good we never earned in the first place. Mercy says, “I won’t give you what you deserve.” Grace says, “I’m going to help you anyway.” That’s why grace is so powerful. It cannot be demanded, purchased, negotiated, or earned. It is a gift.

Right now, we’re living through one of the most angry and divided periods I can remember. People go to war online over politics, sports, religion, pronouns, and whether pineapple belongs on pizza. Hell, it’s even infected my BBQ world. I saw a post recently claiming anyone who uses a pellet smoker shouldn’t be allowed to call themselves a real Pitmaster. Apparently, we’ve now entered the Great Smoker Civil War.

Meanwhile, road rage is everywhere. People throw punches on airplanes. Folks lose their shit in fast-food drive-throughs because somebody gave them unsweetened tea instead of the thick, sugar-rich, sickeningly-sweet alternative that is the stuff of life here in Tennessee. Everybody demands justice, mercy, and grace for themselves. Very few offer mercy to anyone else. Grace? That’s an endangered species.

But what if we changed that?

When somebody cuts in front of you in line at Walmart, mercy says you don’t cave their skull in with a can of Rosarita’s refried beans. Grace says you let it go and maybe even smile at them.

When somebody unloads on you on social media, mercy says you don’t fire back. Grace says you answer with kindness even though every cell in your body wants to launch a flamethrower into the comments section.

Maybe mercy is the place to begin this week.

Most people are not waking up each morning plotting ways to ruin your day. They’re stressed. Distracted. Tired. Scared. Carrying burdens you know nothing about. Mercy recognizes that reality. Grace goes one step further and chooses kindness anyway, especially when it feels undeserved.

That’s the hard part.

I’ll struggle with this myself. Probably before lunchtime. But I’m willing to try.

How about you?

Have an AWEsome week,